Instrumental Hip Hop 425 Items

It's rare to see Nassau, Covid and Grace Jones in the same sentence, but they were indeed part of the creative basis for DJ Vadim's brand new album, Feel UP.

As a busy international DJ, this was nothing short of armageddon for Vadim. The skies were darkened, but rather than sink into inactivity and hibernation, DJ Vadim created within himself his own tropical music festival, an alternative universe that would share some kind of kinship with the recordings made at Compass Point Studios, orchestrated by Chris Blackwell for Grace Jones (1980-1982), James Brown, Ac/dc, and many others...

It was a melting pot of world-class musicians, blending reggae, pop, soul and African rhythms and sounds... together creating one of the most influential albums of the period, and it was in this spirit that the inspiration and title of DJ Vadim's new album, Feel UP (literally 'Feel good' / 'Have the strength, the courage'), was born.

Forty years after those sessions at Compass Point Studios, the same quest for discovery took place in Vadim's Barcelona studio. The desire for growth, self-discovery and the creation of new sounds took hold. The dubcatcher with its 80s digital sounds went out and came back with a wide variety of musical tapas.

Inhale, exhale, Feel UP is the soundtrack you've been missing without even knowing it!

"Los Angeles artist Jay 305 links with producer Girl Talk for their release 'Hard Times Don’t Last.' Jay 305 always releases high quality music and Girl Talk never disappoints."

Iconic New York-born, San Francisco-based rapper and producer, Aesop Rock, joined forces with Rhymesayers to release his sixth studio album, Skelethon in 2012. Skelethon marks his first wholly self-produced effort. This is the instrumental version, also featuring different artwork.

Limited to 50 copies.

Limited to 50 copies with sticker cover

12" Yellow Vinyl of monsoon flavour by ommood Pressed by Mind The Wax

The fourth Jet Set series is now repressed on colored vinyl. Vanilla’s beats are anything but. This master of rhythm and sample construction hails from the UK, crafting tracks with distinction and funkiness that reveal an assortment of flavors. Vanilla’s Bandcamp-released albums have garnered hundreds of thousands of downloads and fans and earned him a wide-ranging fanbase. And his appearance on Cold Busted’s Only On Vinyl 2 LP helped fuel its ‘instant sell-out’ status. Now, Vanilla reveals Pointbreak, his debut EP for Cold Busted that brings together all the elements that confirm this rising producer as a true artist of beats. It’s also the latest installment of the Jet Set series, showcasing sonic travels to exciting, soothing places. “Pointbreak” opens the EP with syncopated keys over a strutting rhythm, conveying the listener’s arrival to an ultra-hip, neon-splattered hotel lobby. The leisure vibes continue with “Surfin' Summer,” a soundtrack for cocktails on the beach while watching the boogie boards go by. “Remember” combines a phat break with loungey bossa nova, a reassuring timewarp to simpler days. The EP closes with “Breeze,” finishing things on a jazzy, quiet storm tip that would make Lonnie Liston Smith swoon.

After 25 years of living his dream as one of hip hop’s most respected producers, Hi-Tek is digging back into his roots with a brand new trio of instrumental vinyl LPs in 2023. “Beatbox Studios (1995 MPC 60ii)” is the first of the series, each featuring a selection of restored and remastered beats, carefully chosen from an archive of DAT tapes. These LPs manage to both provide a window into Tek’s development and to shine light on the work of an already enormously-talented musician whose beats would’ve sounded right at home on classic releases from the mid-1990s. Having learned to make beats off of borrowed equipment as a teenager, the aspiring DJ/producer born as Tony Cottrell achieved a break of sorts when he was hired in 1995 to manage one of the rooms at Beatbox Studios, a sprawling complex in the Clifton neighborhood in Cincinnati. It became the go-to-spot in town for emerging talent, giving him a chance to learn about the intricacies of recording and to sharpen his communication skills with artists to maximize their performance The gig also gave Tek plenty of down time to practice on and to master the studio’s Akai MPC 60ii while making his own music. It was around this time he began to collaborate with the top rap talent in Cincinnati, and he started regularly visiting New York City to plant seeds for new relationships in the industry. Though his work eventually evolved far beyond the styles present on “Beatbox Studios,” here you’ll find many signature elements of that era’s contemporary New York sound: some snappy drums reminiscent of A Tribe Called Quest or Easy Mo Bee, plenty of horn stabs a la Pete Rock or Lord Finesse, and the kind of dark pianos and filtered basslines that producers like the Beatminerz were steadily employing. These were his biggest influences at the time, and that was the sound of 1995. As it turns out, that classic sound remains in demand today, and while Hi-Tek was not a well-known name in hip hop circles at that time, the caliber of beats on “Beatbox Studios” prove that he was a talent to be reckoned with, even then.